Misery Made Beautiful
by Belinda Keller
Summary: Black comedy about a girl who was kidnapped by a vampire and changed with put permission, though she thinks she escaped and safe in Circle Daybreak, she’s chased by assassins, spies and whatever else the Night World can throw at you.
1. Part 1

Part 1  
  
Let's see...I was a normal kid, living my mundane every day life. One day I ran into a boy I'd never met before, gorgeous and mysterious, who incidentally, turned out to be a vampire, part of an ancient secret society that humans aren't supposed to know about. He took a liking to me and changed me without permission. His girlfriend whom he'd forgotten to mention to me was jealous and plotting my horrible death. Of course, I had to escape. And everything went wrong, nothing as I planed. Somewhere along the way I met my soulmate, who was the last person I'd ever expected it to be.  
  
Heard this story before?  
  
Me too.  
  
I've been a member of Circle Daybreak for about three or four months now. This seems to be one of the most popular versions of how people join these days. There are of course, other tales. This is my story of how it happened to me.  
  
It wasn't like I was the most popular, exciting pe4rson in school, like some of the other girls I'd met who'd told this tale. I was mundane, ordinary, run-of-the-mill. I knew I was and never bothered to deny that I was anything more.  
  
Naturally, of course, it was a dream of mine that someday I'd be perfect and rich and pretty, but doesn't everyone? Then this snotty British vampire comes to town and falls madly in love with me.  
  
I'm actually American, and to keep with the standard tradition, from a small town as well.  
  
This vampire, Seth Redfern, shows up, and of course I'm flattered he picks me over some of the other more popular girls. He took me out for dinner, back to my house, always charming and romantic, then he kissed me...  
  
And when I woke up I was dead and a vampire, trapped in some castle in some desolate Scottish moore, or highland or whatever they're called. Why we were in Scotland if the guy was British was beyond me. Whatever.  
  
So I'll begin from there...  
  
* * * 


	2. Part 2

A/Ns: Thanks to Dragonwriter and Leopardess for your reviews.   
  
  
Part 2  
  
I don't even know how I can begin to describe what it feels like to wake up and realise that you're a vampire. To quote John Quinn, ex-Redfern heir, 'Waking up from the dead is an experience you don't forget'. Man, he had that right.  
  
At first I thought I was dreaming, I didn't remember anything except coming home from my date with Seth. I was in an unfamiliar room I didn't recognise. The room was large and almost circular in shape. The large double bed I was lying in wasn't mine. The upholstery on the furniture was patterns of twisted flowers and thorns in dark, depressing colours. Clearly expensive, there was a lot of gold and ivory trimmings.  
  
There was a large desk with my computer, and my stereo. The book shelves were filled with by books and CDs and some of my stuffed animal collection. (Hey, I was eighteen, but I still loved to collect cuddly toys, who doesn't?) I dragged myself out of bed, feeling extremely strange, as if I were sleep walking.   
  
Someone had at least made something of an effort to make the room look like mine, even though I knew it wasn't. I stumbled over to a large arch shaped window. The view below was not the one of my street back in Somersfield. It was desolate, bleak, like there was nothing out there but some rainy dull Mooreland that seemed to stretch on forever. I could see some tall trees dotted about every now and then, blowing in what looked like a very strong wind.   
  
I felt like I'd been dropped into the setting of an updated version of Wurthering Heights. (I actually only read the first three chapters when we were assigned to read the book, but if I had to describe the settling, it would be like where I was now.)  
  
I heard voices in the hall. One was a woman's voice, sounding not that much older than me. She was clearly royally pissed off. The other voice I heard was Seth's. He sounded disdainful, like he wasn't all that bothered. I didn't know at the time the female voice was that of Seth's girlfriend Raina.  
  
While talking to some Daybreakers, I noticed something else that seems to have a similar consistency in most of the stories. Have you noticed this too? Their names seem to have some sort of meaning to their character. Like Seth was the name of a god of chaos. And his girlfriend Raina, means reaper. To my books as in "grim reaper". (I don't know what my own name means).   
  
The bad guys normally have names that mean something dark and evil and bad, while the good guys have names that have good virtues, like strength and beauty and bravery. I'll have a few more examples of these when I bring the good guys into it. (And the villain that ends up good even though they never want to believe it. See if you can guess who he might be).  
  
"What the hell were you thinking!?" the woman (Raina) was screeching furiously. "You're not supposed to go around changing vermin without permission! I'm pretty sure the Night World laws in Scotland are the same as they are in America, and everywhere else!"  
  
"I was bored." That was Seth, I recognised his snotty British tone. (I'm not implying that British people are snotty, by any way, he just was.) "And she was cute."  
  
Cute? He'd done this to me because he was *bored* and thought I was *cute?* I hadn't quite figured out what he'd done to me yet, but I knew he'd done something. And I knew I was going to be even more pissed off when I found out what he'd done.  
  
  
  
  
"I'm not enough for you?" Raina's tone was colder, still furious, but colder.  
  
"You're great. But still." Seth again.   
  
From the casual, dismissive tone of his voice I couldn't believe I'd ever been interested in him. If I wasn't so shallow I might have noticed he was a total creep. Of course when you're ordinary and some mysterious gorgeous guy suddenly takes an interest in you, you don't stop to think that he might have ulterior motives, and it never occurs that he might be a vampire. Because to the sane average mind that's just totally nuts.  
  
"You could use some lightening up. And some company."  
  
"You arrogant bastard!" A string of other expletives followed that I'm far too nice to repeat. I couldn't believe they were actually coming from a woman's mouth. They were followed by the sounds of footsteps storming off. I'd never remembered my haring being this good before.  
  
I heard keys rattling and the door opened. I was locked in a tower? Who the hell did this guy think he was? Looking back at it now, the whole thing seems almost extremely amusing. At the time, of course, I didn't see it that way.  
  
"How do you feel?" Seth asked, smiling at me.  
  
"Weird. Where am I? What's going on?"  
  
"You're at my home. Well, you're home now. I even brought some of your stuff." He gestured around at my things.   
  
I still didn't get it. "Yeah. I see. Why?" My mind was screaming the answer at me, but I was too dumb to actually listen to it. Everything was starting to slowly come together and reluctantly make sense.   
  
"Because I brought you here." Seth's tone was patient. "Once you get used to it, you'll like being a vampire. You'll like the Night World better than the vermin world."  
  
I wasn't sure I was hearing him right. "I'll like being a vampire?" I repeated dully. I'm not going to go into all my shock and horror at the discovery of the Night World and an explanation of its history and where it came from and stuff. You probably already know (even though you're not supposed to).  
  
"Yes. You'll be hungry soon. Someone'll bring you someone to eat." And with that he left, locking the door behind him. Some*one* to eat, obviously meant...I was going to have to drink their blood. Eew.   
  
So that was how I became a vampire. But I'm not finished yet. I'm only just getting started.  
  
* * * 


	3. Part 3

A/Ns. Thanks to Leopardess and the Dark Scribe for reviewing.   
  
  
Part 3  
  
While I was in my room trying to come to terms with what had happened to me, the bad guys, (well, when I say bad guys, interpret that I mean Raina) was already plotting my grisly demise. I'm not sure exactly what happened, so I'm just going to recount what I was told by various people later on, along with artistic licence, (it's my story after all).   
  
Raina just couldn't understand what was wrong with Seth, what the hell he was thinking bringing a human girl, even worse, an *American* human girl into their castle, stealing a bunch of stuff from her house. It was just nuts.  
  
He'd either killed or brainwashed the parents not to notice anything. Still, it was pretty absurd. What did that girl have that she didn't, anyway? Storming about her quarters, she was already certain something had to be done right away.  
  
Yet, if she killed the girl directly, Seth was going to be pissed, and most likely torture her horribly (from my point of view it was a shame she didn't attempt this, anyway...) If she got one of the people in the castle, he was also likely to trace it back to her.  
  
Another thought occurred to her, that maybe *she* should torture him, for being an asshole. He thought that here in Scotland the rules weren't the same as everywhere else. Idiot. All Night People followed the same rules, no matter what country they were in. Seth was no exception to the laws. He thought because he'd picked such a remote location to hold his enclave he could get away with anything. He needed to be taught a lesson.  
  
But in the end, killing his latest toy would teach him. *Then* she'd torture him. The thought brought a smile to her lips. There was only one thing left for it, really. The idea of hiring someone to do the job for her wasn't Raina's preferred choice, but there didn't seem to be anything else she could do.  
  
"You sent for me?"  
  
"Don't sound too enthused." Raina had already called for the only English Night World assassin she considered remotely worthy of any work Evan Blackthorn. It hadn't taken him very long to get here, and she was almost suspicious about why.   
  
"I'm bored with lame assignments like this one," Evan said, walking over to the window and glaring at the windy moore below him. "I want a challenge. Killing the little human girl...well, not so human anymore...it's too easy."  
  
"What?" As far as Raina had been aware the girl was human. Seth hadn't...Who the hell was she trying to kid? Of course he had. She shook her head. What a pratt. "Whatever," she said crossly. "Just do it."  
  
"Don't you think you're overreacting? From what I hear she's not really up to much, despite the fact that now she's been made a vampire."   
  
Raina studied her reflection in a full length mirror.(She wasn't that big actually, not much taller than a little over five feet. She was insultingly slender with perfect blonde hair that had to be bleached, a model perfect face, no flaws, not even a mole of any sort.) She had always relied on her Night World good looks to get her ahead in the world, and always being with someone who had a lot of money helped. Maybe she wasn't the brightest of the bunch when it came to academic things, but still...  
  
"I'm not overreacting," she snapped. "If you'd ever been in love, you'd know." She had loved Seth once, and a part of her still probably did. He'd made her about a two hundred years ago, and had always kept her by his side.   
Part of her hated his guts. Maybe she should have paid attention to *that* part more. She didn't like other girls coming in and intruding. Normally they were tossed out in a few years, but something told her it wasn't going to be like that this time.  
  
"It's easy money for you," Raina pointed out.   
  
"Fine."  
  
So the first step at eliminating me had been taken. Of course, I had no idea about it yet. Maybe the awful nightmares I started to have around that time were trying to tell me something, then I could have been prepared for the next step.  
  
* * * 


	4. Part 4

Part 4  
  
Okay, so we've established the already begun evil plot to kill me. As I said, I had started to have nightmares, always the same, running around in deserted places, with dark skies, and thick black clouds, utterly convinced I was being followed. Standard horror-movie stuff, it might sound like, but when it starts happening to you, you'll think differently, trust me.  
  
I always woke with a cold sweat covering my body. I didn't even know that vampires could sweat. I was starting to find out all these little things that I could do differently to when I was a human being.   
  
Seth never let me out my room. He brought me clothes, and CDs and books and pretty much anything I asked for, even the blood I had started to crave. I felt a little guilty about it, but he always told me it would soon ware off, and I would become a good hunter, and when that happened, I'd forget about being human all together. I wasn't very impressed with any of it.  
  
This guy had come into my life, taken me to a different country, and seemed to think that making me monster would make everything okay. I was prettier; my skin had become smoother, my eyes like chips of gems, my brown hair slightly more lustrous with an almost golden shine to it. That was about the only benefit as far as I could see, but since I was stuck in here, what good would it do me?  
  
A witch came to bring me my meals when I required them, and every time she came she muttered something before coming in and going on. Her name was Lilith Harman (again see the continuity with Seth's way of naming his slaves? I call all his people slaves, that's what they seemed like to me.) I always thought she was either muttering about him, or me; then I realised that it was some sort of spell. If I had super human strength, then I could easily break down the door, or break the window and escape.  
  
"What are you doing to the door?" I asked reasonably one night after the poor sod I'd fed on had been led away, five pints less. "And don't tell me nothing because I know you're lying."  
  
Lilith sighed. "It's called a ward, it's meant to keep what's in the room, in the room."  
  
I wandered over to the window, looking out at the disappointing view of hardly anything worth looking at. I had been here less than a month and already it felt like years. Maybe it was something to do with lack of people, but I hated it. "Couldn't you, like, forget to do it tonight?"  
  
Lilith laughed hollowly. "Yeah right, and I'll get myself tortured, then killed in a very painful and unpleasant way."  
  
"You could come with me," I offered. Didn't know this girl very well, but I didn't want to escape alone, it would make the whole thing easier if I had someone with me. "Don't tell e you actually *like* it here."  
  
"Even if we could get out - which isn't likely, there are werewolf guards at the door - where the hell would we go? I don't have any money, or anything. We're not shapeshifters. If we were it might be easier."  
  
I knew how to hot wire a car. Seth had to have brought me here by car or van. He couldn't have *flown* me all the way from the U.S.A. That would have been impossible and just plain insane. Hot-wiring was a neat little trick my older brother had once shown me (before he'd been arrested for three accounts of grand-theft auto). "Oh come on," I pressed. "I'll go stir-crazy stuck in here."  
  
  
Lilith paused, looking like she might even be considering escaping with me. "Well..." She opened the door, and ventured out a few steps. A few seconds later I heard a muffled cry.   
  
"Lilith?" I called, sticking my head out.  
  
Only to come face to face with a large guy holding a stake. I didn't think about what I was doing. I just shoved him with as much strength as I could muster, and started to run.  
  
* * * 


	5. Part 5

Part 5  
  
Again, I'm going to use artistic licence to tell the next part on what Seth did after I escaped, constructing from what I was told later by various people.  
  
Seth was sitting downstairs in the lounge flipping through the TV at the time of the escape, having no idea what was going on upstairs. He knew some time soon he would have to check on Erin, who was probably getting hungry.  
  
He smiled to himself, taking a sip of coffee. So far everything had worked out well. When he was in America he had thought of hunting some beauty queen from a big city high school, but he found the more interesting people were in the small towns, and he had found Erin. Just your average Mary-Sue type with nothing really going about her. She could be changed and moulded to what he wanted in a woman.  
  
Granted, he did have Raina, but she was just getting on his nerves right now. She had everything to make a great trophy, but she was...well...just plain irritating.   
  
He heard sounds interrupting his solitude, screams and swearing, crashing and things being broken. Now what? He thought, irritated. He turned off the TV and went to see what was going on.  
  
He headed up to the tower first, to check on Erin. The commotion was coming from there. He could smell blood and began moving faster, to find chaos. One of his witches was dead on the floor. The door to the tower was open, Erin wasn't in there.  
  
"What the hell is going on?" he demanded. No one answered him. Seth scowled, getting increasingly annoyed.   
  
Raina was down the hall, yelling at one of her idiot assassins. "You were supposed to kill the girl, not the witch, you asshole!"  
  
"Is it my fault she had plans of her own?" the guy who he didn't recognise snapped. "She just shoved me out the way and ran, you were the one who let her escape!"  
  
"Raina, what's going on?" Seth repeated, a dangerous tone in his voice. He scowled furiously. "Escape? She *escaped*?" He pushed the assassin guy out the way, grabbed Raina by the hair and hit her, viciously.   
  
Raina stared at him, her hand raising dramatically to her cheek. "You should never have brought the little bitch here." Her voice was shocked, but oddly calm as well.  
  
"What I do, is my business and nobody else's," Seth snapped at her. "You fucked up royally, and you're going to set things right. If you don't, I'm going to torture you, then I'm going to kill you. Slowly and painfully. I've done this before. You remember Giselle." He shoved her away and stormed back downstairs.  
  
Erin couldn't have gone far. She had no idea where she was, and didn't know anyone, or have any money. There was only so far she could go. He picked up the phone and dialled a number. "Organise a hunt, she's gone. Find her."  
* * * 


	6. Part 6

Part 6  
  
I had really no clue where I was going, all I knew was I wanted to get away from this place as fast as possible. For once in my life, I was pleased I wasn't very tall. It didn't take me long to sneak out of the castle and find a garage with a black car inside, which I hotwired and took, just driving away.  
  
I was a little suspicious, considering the escape was relatively easy, which, of course, and even I was smart enough to figure someone would be after me sooner or later.  
  
As I made my way out of the so-called country-side, now pouring with rain so hard I could barely see out the windscreen, even with the wipers going full blast, I could just about make out signs pointing into some city with some name I couldn't pronounce.  
  
I needed to find an airport and get the hell out of England. I didn't like it here. But how could I do that without a passport? Well, I had fangs, maybe I could put them to some use. Find some people my age, or maybe some rich people (or both) steal a wallet and some cash, kill the victims...how hard could it be?  
  
The next thing I knew the car was spinning out of control. I couldn't get a grip on the wheel, and the stupid English people were driving on the wrong side of the road, a horn blurred at me. I can vaguely recall shrieking, and the next thing I knew the car was in a ditch.   
  
I can't remember if I passed out or not, but the next thing after that someone was tapping on my window. I jumped in panic, thinking it was Seth, or Raina, or one of their minions. But it wasn't, or didn't seem to be. Just two ordinary-looking girls, my age, or there abouts.  
  
I opened the door and got out of the car shakily. I hadn't broken anything, my head was aching a bit, the car was totalled.   
  
"Are you okay? What happened?" A girl with coppery hair, plastered around her pale face asked. Everyone was soaked to the bone.  
  
"Um...physically speaking fine," I said. "This is going to sound crazy, but I came from up there." I gestured behind me to the murky image of the ancient castle in the background. "I was kidnapped and turned into a vampire against my will, and managed to escape, but now..." I gestured at the car.  
  
The two girls were exchanging glances. Did they think I was totally out my mind. Then one of them shocked me by saying "Seth Redfern?"  
  
I nodded. "How do you know him?" I was suspicious. How could I be sure they weren't really minions of his to drag me back there?  
  
"We're with the good guys," the blonde one said with a reassuring smile. "Something called Circle Daybreak, have you heard of it?"  
  
I opened my mouth to say no, then I remembered I'd heard the staff talking about them finding me when I'd been trying to make my way out the castle. From the impression they gave I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. "Vaguely. Can you guys help me?"  
  
  
  
"Yeah, we're on our way to the airport back to headquarters in Las Vegas. You can come with us. I'm Poppy and that's Thea," the redhead said, nodding to the blonde, who smiled.  
  
"Erin," I said meekly following them to the white limo (how did you get white limos in the middle of nowhere in Scotland?) but I wasn't objecting. I didn't have any other choice, and Vegas sounded pretty cool to me.   
  
* * * 


	7. Part 7

Part 7  
  
As I was meeting the Circle Daybreak girls, back at the castle, Raina was in desperate need of some sort of plan to deal with me...  
  
Raina was still fuming over the whole Erin incident. How she had managed to escape was still unknown to her. The bitch should have been secure, but she must have convinced one of the witches to help her.   
  
The witch, according to Evan, was dead. He blamed it all on the witch. Whoever you blamed it on, the problem was clear enough - Erin had escaped and needed to be recaptured.  
  
She didn't want to give Seth the pleasure of torturing her. She shuddered. The last time he had done this, brought a human, changed her, angry and jealous, Raina had killed the human. Seth had been furious and punished her.   
  
"Find her," she told Evan now. He was sat on a couch in her quarters, sulking liked a stubborn child after being yelled at. "Find her and kill her."  
  
"If we let her die, Seth's gonna torture you," he said icily. Then smiled as he stood up. "All right."  
  
Raina's eyes rolled. She didn't *want* to share Seth. She'd just get a powerful witch to brainwash him into forgetting Erin, there were spells that could do that - the witch thing Cup of Lethe, that made you forget things. How to get her hands on it would be something of a challenge.   
  
"Don't look so pleased," she sneered at Evan. "You have to bring me back the body. Then I will tell Seth she was killed by vampire hunters."  
  
Evan looked at her for a few moments. He didn't seem particularly pleased with the plan, or his job. Maybe she could find a way to pin the blame on him, somehow, then he was the one who would get tortured instead of her.   
  
That made her smile. "Just get on with it."  
  
* * *   
  
Even himself thought the whole thing was a waste of time. The girl was probably long gone by now. He didn't understand why Seth kept doing this, he already had Raina swooning all over him, why did he need two of them?  
  
Raina only got jealous, and the girl usually wound up dead at some point. He should have gone to the States and worked for the Council there, they could have found him some decent tasks, worthy of his time, instead of petty jealousy things like this.  
  
If I were an escaped vampire with no real clue about the Night World what would I do? He thought as he headed down the stairs to the ground floor of the castle.  
  
What would he do...take every advantage of the beauty and power provided by the change, use that to manipulate his way around and become rich and famous. If he could do it again, that's what he'd do.  
  
Instead he'd wound up an assassin for Raina. At first it had been fun, he had been proud to be in her service, now she irritated him.   
  
"...someone from Circle Daybreak is supposed to be picking Erin up, if she's lucky enough to have escaped the castle. They'll find her."  
  
He paused, rounding a corner, hearing the voice of one of the kitchen staff. Circle Daybreak...typical, he thought with a roll of his eyes.   
  
"Well I heard from Donna that they've just found her and taking her to the mansion in Vegas. She should be okay there."  
  
Thank you Donna, Evan thought. It seemed, he thought as he went to find a phone, that everything was falling into place a little too easily. Sure, it would get the job done fast, but...he couldn't help wondering if there was some sort of catch he wasn't getting.   
  
* * * 


	8. Part 8

Part 8  
  
I was extremely surprised when I got back to America and found that the Daybreak headquarters was actually in Las Vegas. It was the last place in the world I'd ever expected would host the last line of defence against a bunch of evil vampires.  
  
I was more than a little nervous as I sat in the boss's office, I mean, how else were you going to react in meeting with a vampire who had been around since human beings lived in caves?  
  
"What can I do for you?" His smile was warm and friendly, his brown eyes were large and kind of puppy like, not something I'd expect from a cave-man vampire. I almost considered asking him if he'd ever met the Flintstones.   
  
"Well, it's kind of a funny story really," I began. "I was a normal ordinary person until this guy came to my town, he was really hot and seemed nice and when he asked me out, I said sure, who wouldn't. Then it turned out his name was Seth Redfern and he was a vampire, he made me one and dragged me all the way to his gloomy castle in Scotland, and he failed to mention he had this bitch of a girlfriend Raina, who sent some minion of hers to kill me, only I escaped and ran in to two of your people who said you guys would be able to help me."   
  
Wow, that was a long sentence, I let out a breath and waited for him to tell me sure, I would be fine here. The big Boss's girlfriend had come in. It was extremely weird, she was probably not much older than me, then again, Thierry, looked about twenty. (I still thought it was weird seeing them together)  
  
"Well maybe you'd be better in one of our small town safe houses, since you came from a small town," the girlfriend suggested. "It's probably not a good idea to go back to your home town as a vampire."  
  
~Duh~ I thought, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. There was nothing I wanted more than to go home back to my normal life, but that was never going to happen, so I had to make do with what I was, even if it did involve blood. Eew. I wasn't sure I would ever get used to that.  
  
Now I had to play the new person and adapt to a new life style with people I'd never heard of. Later I was to learn that apparently, this wasn't that much of a new story after all, it seemed to happen a lot, in its own context, people getting stuck with something to do with the Night World and having to be a new kid in a new town to start again, and it usually all went wrong and then worked out after all.   
  
"Yes, that's a good idea," Thierry said. "Poppy and Thea can go with you, you'll like them."   
  
They were the girls who had conveniently shown up when I'd crashed my stolen car. I always wondered if that was a mere coincidence or not. But, whatever. Anyway, you'll never guess what happened when I got to my new safe house...  
  
* * * 


	9. Part 9

Part 9  
  
Well if you haven't guessed it already at the new safehouse I was staying in there was a boy there named Vincent Crowe, not exactly the nicest guy in the world, who wasn't all that surprised to see me there. See where I'm going with this? Anyway, so we've got a new character here for me to get into his mind, or at least speculate what he had been thinking from what I was told afterwards.  
  
There was only one person who would be inconsiderate enough to call him after midnight, Vincent didn't even want to know what Raina wanted this time. He was already totally bored with being stuck pretending to be a Daybreaker, nothing hardly ever happened. "This had better be good," he muttered sleepily.  
  
"You work for me, remember," Raina's bitchy voice snapped at him. "Long story short Seth's done it again, and the girl will be going to your safehouse before long. Evan's supposed to be hunting her down, keep an eye on her until Evan gets off his arse and kills her." She hung up.   
  
Vincent's eyes rolled, wondering why Seth managed to get away with so much. It was completely unfair. Vincent also wondered why, if Seth kept going for other girls, he kept Raina around at all, considering all she did was kill them. It was getting a little silly.   
  
He didn't particularly like Evan, he had a habit of screwing up, but somehow managed to remain Raina's favourite, she didn't seem to have any idea the guy was such a dweeb when it came to her assignments.   
  
Which meant he would most likely have to pick up the pieces. He groaned aloud, rolling over, and tried to get back to sleep.  
  
* * *  
  
When I got to the safehouse, I of course, had no idea what Raina and her cronies were planning. I was just nervous about being stuck with a bunch of people I didn't know if I could trust or not. I mean, after all, there weren't just vampires, there were witches and shapeshifters and werewolves (oh my!) it was still kind of hard to think of them living in two separate societies of good guys and bad guys. And I also had a new name as well, and a new identity, as of now, I was supposed to be Janna Starling. Eew. The worry was that if someone heard me as Erin Redfern that might get back to Seth. So I grudgingly had to accept this.   
  
"So what'd you think so far?" Poppy asked me, once I had settled into my new bedroom.   
  
"I think I'm going crazy," I said reasonably, folding my arms stubbornly. "I don't see why I can't just go home and explain everything. This is nuts."  
  
Poppy smiled sympathetically. "I know the feeling, it was like that for me when I first became a vampire."  
  
I wasn't interested. "Yeah, but your boyfriend saved you from dying and you got to go off with him. I didn't get a choice," I pointed out. I didn't really care about how other people had gotten into the whole insane concept at this point, all could think about was me and how I was feeling. I was the one all this wrong had been done to.  
  
"Everyone understands," Poppy's smile was starting to get really annoying. "Give us a yell if you need us." Finally she took the hint and went away.   
  
I followed quietly, wanting to know what she was going to say about me. I didn't care that I was being petty, I just wanted my life back. Was that really so terribly wrong? I didn't want to be Janna Starling, I just wanted to be Erin Thompson.   
  
"Well she's settled in, but she's - " Poppy was saying to one of the other safehouse occupants Rashel Jordan.  
  
"Extremely bitchy and going to drive us up the wall?"  
  
I had to try not to laugh in disbelief. Rashel thought *I* was bitchy? When was the last time she took time to evaluate her personality? So she had vampire issues. Welcome to the club.  
  
"I guess, but I still think..." Poppy trailed off.  
  
"What?" Rashel asked.   
  
"Do you get the feeling we're being watched? Something's going to go wrong."  
  
Rashel snorted. "Something *always* goes wrong."  
  
As much as I hated to admit it, she was actually right there.   
  
* * * 


End file.
